Month: September 2016
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Belties below the Wainstones
Belted Galloways, bred to survive on the moors and uplands of South West Scotland, are aptly suited to the rough pastures below the Wainstones on Hasty Bank. They take their name from the distinctive white belt. Their coarse hair easily sheds rain and snow and an underlayer of softer hair provides insulation during the winter months.…
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Hagg's Gate
I didn’t realise it at the time but this is an almost opposite view to a photo I took earlier in the summer. I am on Hasty Bank, one of the bumps of the Cleveland Hills, and looking down onto the col at the top of Clay Bank on a contrasty early evening with bright skies and…
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Yorkshire Fog
A couple of months ago, in the summer, I heard an assessor telling the Duke of Edinburgh group I was supervising that the grass that which grows in profusion on disturbed or burnt areas on the moors is called ‘Yorkshire Haze’. An interesting snippet of a local plant name I thought and locked it away in my grey cells. I…
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Quakers' Causeway
One of the best preserved pannierways on the North York Moors. It crosses Commondale Moor in a south westerly direction to White Cross. Its true purpose is not known. And difficult to date with any degree of confidence. Perhaps it is one of the pannierways mentioned in the foundation document of Guisborough Priory in the 12th…
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Great Ayton Moor
There’s an old adage that is said in all farming communities, from Scotland, to Wales and to Cumbria: Where there’s bracken there’s gold; where there’s gorse there’s silver; where there’s heather there’s poverty At first it’s hard to see the reasoning. Bracken is allelopathic, it produces toxins in the soil which prevents other plants from germinating. Hardly…
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Pillbox, South Gare
I went orienteering today … at South Gare, a complex area of sand dunes and reclaimed land created over 150 years of iron production. A bit rusty. Should have picked an easier area. A leg along the beach went past this World War II pillbox almost buried in the sand. Pillboxes were hastily constructed after the fall of…
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Highcliff Nab
The heather is just about past its sell by date. A view east from Percy Rigg towards Highcliffe or Codhill Farm and Highcliff Nab.
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Last Light on Roseberry
Dashed up to Gribdale to catch the sunset but it somewhat fizzled out. A few people on Roseberry had the same idea.
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Gurnal Dubs
A cracking morning on Potter Fell in the foothills of the Lakes north of Kendal. A quiet area largely ignored by those in a hurry to get into the big fells. A dub is a small pond and there were indeed originally three dubs until Richard Fothergill II built a dam to create the much larger lake of just under eight acres we see today.…
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Blea Water
Not a view I see very often. From the lip of the High Street plateau. Blea Water drains into Mardale now flooded by the Haweswater reservoir, the source of Manchester’s water.